Working Group Charter. RDM Helpdesk Network

Support is an essential component of an efficient infrastructure for research data management (RDM). Helpdesks guide researchers through this complex landscape and provide reliable support about all questions regarding research data management, including support for technical services, best practices, requirements of funding organizations and legal topics. In NFDI, most consortia have already established or are planning to establish helpdesks to support their specific communities. On a local level, many institutions have set up RDM helpdesks that provide support for the researchers of their own institution. Additional RDM support services are offered by RDM federal state initiatives, by research data centers, by specialist libraries, by the EOSC, and by providers of RDM-relevant tools. Helpdesks cover a wide range of institutions, disciplines, topics, methodologies and target audiences. However, the individual helpdesks are not yet interconnected and therefore cannot complement one another in an efficient way: Given the wide and constantly increasing complexity of RDM, no single helpdesk can provide the expertise for all potential support requests. Therefore, we see great potential in combining the efforts and resources of the existing RDM helpdesks into an efficient and comprehensive national RDM support network in order to provide optimal and tailored RDM support to all researchers and research-related institutions in Germany and in an international context.